Silicon Valley philanthropists raise record $1.4 billion

The do-gooders at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation just announced that they raised a record $1.4 billion — yes, billion with a “b” — in new gifts from individual and corporate donors in 2013, smashing their previous record harvest of $985 million from the year before.

So how do you raise $1.4 billion in a year? It helps when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg drops $1 biiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllion in the kitty. The SVCF now has $4.7 billion under management.

Last year the foundation awarded $367 million through more than 10,300 grants. Bay Area charities received $197 million of that amount, making the foundation the largest single grant-giver to local nonprofits.